Please, Please, Please help me and evaluate my Essays!!
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09 Aug 2014, 16:10
Its from Barrons Toefl iBT 12th edition
Model Test 3
Writing
Integrated Writing
Referring to the main points in the reading, describe the Sydney opera house. Then, using information from both the reading and the lecture, explain why the professor classifies the building as unique.
The Sydney Opera House was opened in 1973, after decades of planning and organizing it’s building. Jorn Utzon, who is a Danish architect, wanted to create a design, which naturally fits into it’s environment and which is unique and remeberable. The professor explains it’s natural fit the location of the opera: the harbor of Sydney. The building looks like a sailing ship with full sail on the water. Therefore, it does not interfere with it’s surroundings.
Nevertheles, the professor claims that the opera breaks out of the skyscraper skyline, due to it’s unordinary shape. There is no other building which can be compared with the design of the Opera. Over and above, the professor mentions that she is not able to assign a certain school of architechture to the building, which let’s the design stand out even more. On the one hand, the design is modern, but owing to the clear arches which contrast most modern buildings, it cannot be classified as a standart “modern” building.
These points cleary state, that the professor perceives the building to be one of a kind and unique. Taking a look at the history of it’s building, it becomes obvious that the architecht created it’s uniqueness by overcoming the contemporary limitations of available engineering capabilities and worked out a technique which allowed him to build this unordinary rooftop. By applying a futuristic art of engineering, the uniqueness of the building was stated once more.
Independent Writing
The college years are the best time on a person’s life.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons to support your opinion.
I totally agree with the statement because of several reasons.
First of all, I think college is the first milestone in your life which let’s you experience your first individual independency. Most likely, you are going to study in a town different from your home town and you are going to live in your own appartment for the first time. This can be a great experience since you experience your own strenghts and weaknesses in your everyday live and you get to know your own self-efficiacy.
Secondly, you are probably going to have the most time spare time in your life. Although you have to study hard in the exam phase, there is plenty of time during the semester to go out and make new experiences through travel, clubs and new people. This can be very enriching. The possibility to experience a semester abroad can open your mind for new points of views, cultures and religions and influence your personality in the long run.
Unfortunately, if is very likely that you are going to have less spare time once you enter the workforce, because most jobs have a tight schedule. Moreover, many adults decide to found a family when they enter the workforce, which takes away important time for themselves and the engagement with their personality or hobbies.
Third, the college time is a time of focus on education. In most American colleges you are priviliged to choose from a wide variety of electives that best suit your preferences. You are able to try out new directions and fields of study and discover your own interests. This is a time of finding yourself and defining your passions and interests. It can be helpful to get a direction in life and to find out where you want to go in the future. Your schedule leaves time open to volunteer for socials insitutions or to persure your hobbies, which overall shapes your life with a lot of creativity and inspiration.
All these factors contribute positively to your college time and offer a lot of inspiration and muse to shape and form the person that you want to become. It is the beginning of an exciting journey called “life” and the first step towards becoming a responsible adult and member of society.
Model Test 2
Writing
Integrated Writing
Summarize the main points in the reading passge, and then explain how the lecture cats doubt on the ideas in the reading.
According to the reading passage, the „Turing Test“ was designed to answer the question whether computers are able to think. The author of the article implies that this test came up in 1950, when the inventor of the test created an experiment that was supposed to prove or disprove the ability of a computer to interact with a human being naturally. The researchers would let humans interact with a computer or a human in another room. The probants are asked to evaluate wheter they interacted with a human or a computer afterwards. If they misleadingly perceived the counterpart to be human, then the ability of the computer to interact with humans naturally would be given.
The teacher in the lecture criticizes this test in terms of it’s validity. He elaborated his point of view by giving an example of the so called “chinese room”. In this experiment, a monolingual English speaking person would not be able to understand chinese communication. With the appropriate reference though, the person would be able to break the code. Given the code of the sender, a person could determine essential parts of expected behaviors for the answer. The English speaking person would hence reply by using that code without really understanding why he or she is saying it.
Eventually, this experiement shows that there is a way of generating answers to questions or certain behaviors without the actual awareness of what the person or the computer is doing. By giving this example, which reveals a shortcoming of the research design of the Turing Test, the teacher in the lecture implies that no conclusions concering the question “Do computers think” can be drawn from the test.
Independent Writing
Read the following statement: Pets should be treated like family members.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons to support your opinion.
I do not agree with the statement. First of all, I do have problems relating to family pets, since my family never had any. Therefore, I struggle to understand the intensity of some relationships between pets and pet owners. The exegerated care of some dog owners for example, which lets them invest thousands of Dollars for dog couture and accessoires leaves me speechless. I think that there should be a clear line between humans and pets. For me, the love towards a pet should not exceed a certain border.
Animal should not be treated like humans because they have different needs and skills. This is even in the interest of the pet itself to some degree. Bytreating pets like family members, petholders often harm their pets instead of providing a benefit for their beloved ones. Heavy accessoires that are not naturally supposed for dogs for example, can hinder the mobility of dogs. This would be an example that goes too far in my mind.
To me, an animal cannot subsitute human conversations. Pets are unable to understand spoken language conciously and offer verbal support. If I need a consultation on how to behave in a certain situation for example, a dog would be a very inappropriate conversational partner. Consequently, they will never be equal to a family member.
Furthermore, most pets do live a shorter live than their human companions. Therefore, the time to develop a relationship is usually shorter than the time spent with a human brother or mother.
Moreover, a complete concentration of attention on a pet can hinder people to interact with other humans. Many elderly for example buy e.g., 10 cats that they can barely take care of, to fight their lonelieness. This daily overexposure to animals only can cause social isolation and is actually harming for humans. These pet owners, who are often single and do not have any children fail at simulating an intact family with their cats. Instead, these people should be advised to treat their pets like pets and get the neccessary human social contact that lets them stay mentally healthy and happy.